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Per Kirkeby (1938–2018) | The Danish painter and sculptor Per Kirkeby has died at the age of 79, Michael Werner Gallery announced yesterday. After studying at the University of Copenhagen in the 1960s, Kirkeby initially aligned himself with the experimental art movements of the day, before forging ahead with his own Neo-expressionist style, combining the languages of romantic nature painting with abstraction. In his lifetime, he was honoured with solo shows at institutions including Copenhagen’s Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art, Cologne’s Museum Ludwig and the Tate Modern in London.

Nicolas Bourriaud to curate Istanbul Biennial in 2019 | Nicolas Bourriaud has been named as director of next year’s Istanbul Biennial, the sixteenth edition of the exhibition. Bourriaud, who co-founded Paris’s Palais de Tokyo and headed the city’s École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts from 2011–15, is currently director of Montpellier’s La Panacée Art Centre and Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts as well as the yet-to-open Montpellier Contemporain.

UK culture minister pledges to distribute artworks ‘more strategically’ across the country | UK culture minister Michael Ellis has voiced his support for moving major works of art out of London in order to be circulated around Britain. According to the Huffington Post, the minister is working with museum sector leaders to develop a plan in which works from the government art collection would be ‘shared more strategically’ across the country, in a range of different public buildings.

Report urges French institutions to improve responses to restitution cases | France’s government and institutions must improve their approach to Nazi-era restitution claims, a government report seen by the Art Newspaper has found. Headed by cultural heritage expert David Zivie, the report, commissioned by former culture minister Audrey Azoulay, recommends ‘urgent measures’ including the creation of a central task force of restitution experts and compulsory museum inventories of works lacking a clear provenance. According to TAN, the government is currently deliberating as to whether or not to make the report public.

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